


Deep Blue

by hotcocoacutie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Aquarium AU, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Is Gay, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Has Anxiety, Kinkade is hot af, Lance (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Multi, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slow Burn, Slow Burn Keith/Lance (Voltron), angsty past, aquarium, broganes, mermaid au, tragic past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-07-10 16:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15953291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotcocoacutie/pseuds/hotcocoacutie
Summary: ~~DISCONTINUED~~Lance is a merman at the Voltron Mer Aquarium, rescued from the Galra, an illegal merfolk trading organization that deals mainly in the black market. One day Hunk, the boy who brings him food and the man who Lance had quickly befriended, gets moved to another tank when the owner’s brother joins the team. Though he’s disappointed at first, Lance quickly comes to realize that maybe this isn’t so bad after all- and that realization has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Keith is really cute.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Aquarium](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14003583) by [hotcocoacutie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotcocoacutie/pseuds/hotcocoacutie). 



The day when they first met started as a normal day for Lance. He woke up, stretched, tidied up his small room, and waited for his food to come. 

His aqua blue tail flicked as he swam to the entrance of his room. He pushed past the seaweed covering and emerged into his tank, a large cube open to the air at the top with plants, fake and real alike, planted at the bottom and creeping up the sides at the corners to make it more natural. Two of the walls were glass, and the other two were covered in rocks and plants. 

It was home, and Lance liked it very much.

He started at his usual routine, adjusting the scenery and checking the water filter- before the employees would do that, but desperate for something to do in the mornings beside float around being bored, Lance had asked if he could do it instead. 

Finally, as he was trying to decide if a certain rock would look better tilted this way or maybe a little more to the right, he heard footsteps.

Lance’s head shot up, mouth spread in a sharp-toothed grin. In one fluid motion he turned and pushed off up towards the surface. As he swam his mind briefly recognized that the footsteps sounded lighter than they usually did, but in his excitement for food he brushed it off.

Lance loved breaching- the sudden shock of the transition from water to air sent adrenaline pumping through his veins, and as he turned in the air to get the correct position for re-landing, he loved the feeling of flying.

Usually, he did it perfectly, and depending on what mood he was in, he could make a huge splash as he came down or leave hardly a ripple in the water. 

Usually, he didn’t hear a yelp from an unfamiliar voice right as he surfaced.

His eyes snapped open and, as he was distracted, didn’t get into the right position for landing and instead landed in a huge belly-flop that snatched the air from him and left the front of his torso stinging. As he sank slightly below the surface and caught his breath he glanced down and winced as his stomach started turning light blue from the impact- ouch. 

He swam to the edge of the tank and rose up above the surface again, waiting until his eyes adjusted and his lungs started breathing air to glare at the person who had distracted him.

The man staring back at him, looking surprised and maybe a little worried, was definitely not Hunk. He had raven-black hair that reached to his shoulders and his eyes were dark blue, even looking slightly purple (though it may have just been the lighting). 

After a moment of tense staring, Lance blurted “Who are you? Where’d Hunk go?”

The other boy blinked stupidly, opening his mouth as if to say something, and a moment later actually managing to get out, “Uhhh, I-I’m Keith. Hunk was moved. Um... sorry.”

Lance erupted out of the water, startling the other boy. “WHAT?! OH COME ON!! WHY?! UUUUUUGH.” He sank back down in the water with a loud groan that turned into bubbles before cutting off. Lance tilted his head up so he could continue breathing air, pouting with the most pathetic face he could muster.

“Woah, uh, sorry dude. Wasn’t really my decision. Uh... I take it you and Hunk were close?”

Lance scoffed. “Close? We were BEST FRIENDS. Ugh. Whyyyy.” He buried his head in his arms, which were laying crossed on the platform over the water that Keith was sitting on.

“Well. Um. Sorry. ...anyway, I have your food?” The other boy replied, seeming put off balance by the merman’s response to his new employment. 

Lance lifted his head up and rested his chin on the palm of his hand, face warming as he realized that he might have been kind of mean. “Sorry 'bout that. Had to get all my emotions out. Anyhow, I’m starved. What did ya bring me?”

Keith, looking relieved that he finally knew what he was supposed to say and do, reached to the step behind him and pulled up a large bucket with the Voltron Mer Aquarium logo on it. 

The same logo was on Keith’s name tag, which was pinned to a black dress jacket/ suit thing that all of the employees had to wear, but everyone could wear whatever flat color shirt they wanted under it. Keith was wearing a red shirt.

After the second his brain spent looking over Keith’s outfit, his nose twitched and he realized that a familiar scent was drifting to it. His head snapped toward the bucket and, as Keith took a fish out of it, Lance grinned.

“Ah! Salmon!! That’s my favorite!” Lance did a happy clap before placing his webbed hands on the platform to hold himself up above the water. His tail flicked eagerly.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Hunk mentioned you liked them, so I figured, uh, to make up for me replacing your- your friend, I would, uh, get you a treat.” Keith gave a small smile, and Lance grinned wide again and laughed happily. 

He slipped back lower to the water again and pushed away from the wall slightly. “Throw the fish into the water! It’s fun to swim to catch them.”

Keith blinked. “Oh. Ok.” He lifted the hand holding the fish and stuck his tongue out slightly in concentration, which Lance found weirdly adorable, before he tossed the salmon far over the merman’s head. Lance lunged after it, pushing off the wall of the tank for momentum. He caught the fish in one of his hands right before it hit that water and he sank below the surface, bringing the food up to his mouth and tearing into it gleefully with sharp teeth.

He quickly ate all the meat off with expert bites, until nothing but the small bones remained. He grabbed one of the larger ones so he could fiddle with it later since the other ones had worn out, and gathered the rest up. He popped back above the surface and placed the bones he didn’t want on the platform and smiled at Keith.

Keith was staring at Lance with wide eyes, lips slightly parted. His face was bright red and after a second he started stuttering, “Um, uh, uhh, well, what- how did- um, uh-“

Lance held up a hand to cut the other boy off. “Yo, dude, calm down! I know me eating can kind of creep humans out the first time they see it, but really all merfolk eat like that. It’s normal. Don’t freak out.”

Keith paused for a moment. “Okay.”

Lance laughed, the sound bouncing off the large walls of the empty aquarium.

Keith fed him the rest of the fish in the bucket, then gathered up the discarded bones, waved goodbye to Lance, and headed back down the stairs. Lance took the few of the bigger bones he had found and swum back down to duck inside his room. 

He nibbled on the end of one of the bones and placed the other few next to his bed to use later. He then swam back out to the main part of his tank, still chewing on the fishbone as his brain wandered and reviewed what had just happened.

_Well, I’m still unhappy about Hunk being moved, but oh well. It was probably about time I made friends with more humans other than Hunk. I wondered where he got moved to- I’ll have to ask Pidge later today. I’ll also have to see if she’ll let me groom her feathers today. That’s always really fun._

He was snapped out of his trance by Shiro's voice coming on through the intercom, including special speakers in the water so the merfolk could hear him while underwater. 

“Attention everyone, the aquarium will be opening in 5 minutes. I repeat, 5 minutes until opening. Everyone get to your stations.”

After the familiar static click of the intercom turning off, Lance smiled.

_Well, I’d better get ready for the day!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a nightmare.

_The air was warm that day. Warm and humid. He had hardly been able to tell exactly when he went from warm, murky waters to open air, except of course for the fact that he couldn’t breathe for a second, and wasn’t much helped by the hand firmly gripping his neck._

_They had caught him by surprise- wrestled him away from his mother, who he now called for as he was dragged away. He thrashed wildly, and for a moment his arm was free._

_He reached for his mama, for his baby brother that she help close to her chest, and his sister who, as he watched, was also grabbed and hoisted out of their family’s crate._

_The hand roughly grabbed his arm again. It didn’t let go this time._

_Something hit him over the head, and his head reeled as he went limp, dazed._

_They hauled him into a small box, and he choked again at the rough transition from air to water. Darkness descended on him and his head snapped up- they were putting the top of the box on._

_He surged up, feebly trying to knock the top off, to break the box, to do anything that might help him escape._

_But of course, even if he got out, he would still be with them._

_There was no escaping them._

_So he sank to the bottom, tail pale from illness that came with them forcing him to live in freshwater._

_So he sank to the bottom, his ribs jutting out of his tanned chest as he buried his brown-haired head in light brown arms._

_So he sank to the bottom and cried his aqua blue eyes out._

* * *

Lance’s head snaps up and hits something right above his head. With panic gripping his guts he thrashes about, trying to find his way out of the small space because _it’s too small it’s too small he was choking he was drowning which made no sense but **he was drowning and he was going to die and-**_

Lance shot backwards out of his shell-shaped bed, breath coming in heavy gasps and his gills flaring, struggling to keep up. 

After a moment, he sighs heavily, placing his hands over his eyes and wiping them down his face. His hands landed near his stomach and curled lightly around his midsection as he shivered violently, just once before going still. 

Great. It’s going to be one of THOSE days, I see.

Last night Coran and Matt had stayed at the aquarium late, so the lights had been on late, so Lance felt that he was feeling ok enough to sleep with his head in the skinny, closed over part of his bed.

Clearly that was a mistake.

Quiznackin’ claustrophobia.

Lance sighs again, pushing the palms of his hands into his eyes. Right. Focus on what’s around you. Don’t get stuck in the past.

First, things he could see- he lowered his hands and looked his room over with aqua blue eyes, slit pupils slimming as he went from the darkness behind his eyes to the light of his room.

He could see his bed, the seaweed curtain that lead to his tank. The white walls that helped make it feel bigger than it was, the small shells embedded in those walls. Lance flicked his tail and drifted over to the closest wall, running his hand along it- this close, he could also see the small pearls embedded in a wave pattern to mimic the architecture of the merfolk kingdoms.

Lance can also feel the pearls and seashells in the walls, and he runs his hands over said wall, relaxing at the familiar texture. He reached one hand up and felt the scales next to his eyes, which could glow in dark places to help him see. His room was pretty well-lit, though he wished he had some way to turn off the lights himself. He made a mental note to bring it up in the next meeting.

Ok. How about things he can smell-

The sound of distant footsteps snapped him harshly out of his calming exercise, and soon he found himself panicking again.

_OH CRAP I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS SIX ALREADY CRAP CRAP I CAN’T LET KEITH SEE ME LIKE THIS_

His hair was a mess, his eyes were probably bloodshot, and he generally did not look very ok. After a moment of silent panicking he shook his head vigorously and shot over to the small dresser in the corner of his room that held his only possessions, most of which were given to him by his friends or by the Aquarium. 

He grabbed a brush and ran it through his hair, trying to go fast. He peeked at himself in the mirror shaped like a giant half of a clam and figured his hair was alright now. His eyes didn’t look too bad, actually, and after he managed to conjure up a fake confidence smile to go on top of it, he figured he looked alright. 

Taking a deep breath, he swam out of his room and up to the top of the tank, surfacing gently. After his eyes adjusted and his lungs kicked in, he made his way over to the platform above the water where Keith was sitting, watching Lance with a relieved expression.

“Hey there, Lance. What took you so long?”

It was framed as an innocent question, but Lance could see in Keith’s eyes that he was searching his, watching and waiting for him to slip up. 

Or maybe he was looking into it too much. Who knows.

Anyhow, Lance answered with an easy smile as he rested an arm on the platform. “I got up late. You know how it is.”

Keith’s eyebrows lowered, his lip jutting out in a thoughtful, searching expression. Lance felt unnerved by it, but luckily after a moment the human’s face relaxed and he reached behind him to pull the bucket up onto the platform. 

Lance sniffed the air- tuna. Not really my favorite, but not bad either. 

As Keith grabbed a fish from the bucket and raised his arm to throw it for Lance, the merman raised an arm to stop him. “Wait! Uh, do you think you can just, like... hand the fish to me today? I-I’m still pretty tired, y’know...”

For a moment Keith’s expression went back to worried, but then he shrugged. “Yeah, alright. I understand, man.” He handed the fish he had been holding to Lance, who speared it on his sharp nails and ate it quickly. 

He dumped all the bones on the platform (all of the bigger bones he used to chew on and fight with were still very much intact), and the two repeated this process, not saying much.

After a few fish, as Keith reached into the bucket for another one, Lance decided to take a bit of a risk and say, “Uh, actually, I’m, um, not very hungry today?” He flashed his confidence smile, which was feeling less and less real by the second. 

For a third time Keith’s eyebrows furrowed, and he placed the tuna he had been getting out back into the bucket before adjusting his legs and leaning forwards towards Lance, who instinctively ducked away. 

“You okay? Is there something going on?”

Shit.

He had seen right through Lance’s mask of confidence! Years of building it up and nobody had ever been able to tell, and now Keith, the human he only ever saw twice a day, had seen through him in only four days of knowing each other. 

Lance forced a small laugh, hands clutching the edge of the platform and he refused to look Keith in the eye. “Ah-hah, uh, I-I’m fine! Really, just... slept in, is all. I’m just a little tired, in fact, I’m probably gonna go get some more sleep! See ya!”

As Lance turned to go back to his room and probably hide the entire day, Keith reached out and

And Lance was back to that day, with the men squeezing his arm, pulling him away from his mother and his family but he can’t leave them because they already took Dad and Luis, and Marco and Veronica weren’t going to be safe and he has to get back to them he has to because they need him he needs them and

And then he’s back to being eighteen years old, facing Keith, who is holding his arm where Lance hit him. He can hardly see this through tears that biologically make no sense because merfolk live in water why do they cry? 

Lance dives under the water, trying to follow the train of thought that wasn’t about how he had just ruined a friendship, just like he ruined everything because he was incompetent and stupid and everything he did or tried to do turned out awful and he always messed up EVERYTHING and WHY was he even alive and-

Lance ducks into his bed and digs his hands into his ears, gills working to get enough oxygen as he sobbed his aqua blue eyes out and his nails drew blue blood from the skin around his ears.

He doesn’t come out of his bed for the rest of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof so most of the plot points / events are gonna be the same as the original fic, I'm just rewriting it lol


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is worried. Also cleaning.

Keith jumped at the fingers snapping only a few inches from his face, and he snapped his attention to the ginger-haired janitor the fingers belonged to. 

Coran smiled, laugh lines creasing. “You seem distracted, my boy! What’s going on in that brain o’ yours?” 

Keith tightened his grip on the mop slightly, adjusting his feet. “Uh, nothing, just... worried about Lance, I guess.”

Earlier that day, he had gone to feed Lance and noticed he seemed off. When he questioned Lance about it the merman avoided it and tried to run away (Keith understood because it was a tactic he himself had used many times). Keith had instinctively grabbed his arm to make him stay, but apparently he only made things worse- he rubbed his upper arm where Lance had hit him. He didn’t blame Lance, not in the slightest. 

After that incident, he had gone to Shiro, his cousin-brother-dad (don’t ask) and owner of the Voltron Mer Aquarium, and told him about it. 

Shiro had said that Lance probably had PTSD- something Shiro himself also had. He was trying to see if he could get a therapist for Lance, but it would be hard to find one who could go underwater with him if the Mer decided to run away.

Coran frowned now, placing a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I know, sonny. We all are.” His face brightened again- Keith didn’t think it was possible for Coran to be sad or even slightly upset at any one thing for any long amount of time. “Anyway! We only have the Mershark section to clean, then we’re all done!”

Keith forced a small smile as Coran patted him on his shoulder again and turned to go toward the Deep Sea exhibit. After a moment Keith followed.

Every Saturday evening, after the aquarium had closed, Keith joined Coran and they cleaned the entire aquarium- they started at the west side, with the kids sections and special tanks that allowed the merfolk there to talk to the kids and teach them about merfolk, the ocean, and the aquarium. 

They then worked their way east, going to the freshwater exhibits that included beautiful koi (both the fish and the merfish variety) to slow-moving mermanatees. 

Next was the saltwater- this included merfolk like Lance, who didn’t really resemble a specific fish, and also Ryan, a merstingray who preferred to go by his last name, Kinkade. 

And last was the Deep Sea exhibit- home of the anglerfish, jellyfish (and merjellies), and of course. the mersharks. 

Keith loved the Deep Sea exhibit- the walls were dark blue, and only a few sets of hanging lights dimly illuminated the place that some thought were very scary. Keith didn’t think so. He thought it was relaxing, all the darkness. He liked the dark.

Keith shook his head to clear his mind, just for a moment so he could focus on wetting his mop and starting to clean the floor, which Keith also loved- it was made of thick glass, under which was the home for the anglerfish, their lures providing a soft glow to the floor.

About an hour and a half of mopping and wandering, calm, mostly subconscious thoughts, the entire aquarium was clean. Keith leaned against his mop and waved to Shay, a mershark resembling a brown tiger shark. He placed his mop back in the cart and slapped Coran’s raised hand, watching the older man’s ears and mustache twitch as he smiled. 

Coran had pointy-ish ears and blue scales in the corners of his eyes, which showed he was a mer-human hybrid- technically he was mostly human and only a little mer, given that his great-grandmother had been the mermaid. He used to be married to a man named Alfor, until he died in a car accident. He had adopted Alfor’s daughter Allura who, if he wasn’t SO gay, Keith would probably be insanely attracted to. 

Keith let his thoughts wander as he and Coran made their way to the offices at the back of the building. Keith knocked lightly on the door to Shiro’s office, aware that the man was startled by loud noises. A moment later a warm, deep voice called out, “Come in, I’m just finishing up some paperwork.”

Keith pushed open the door just enough so he could stand in the opening. “Me and Coran are finished cleaning. I’m gonna feed Lance and then head home.” Shiro smiled, the scar across his nose wrinkling. “Thank you! Safe travels. Love you.”

Keith smiled back, backing out of the office. “Love y- FUCK”

Keith grabbed his thigh, which the closing door handle had just rammed. 

“LANGUAGE.” Keith sighed at the look Shiro gave him.

“Quiznack,” He recited. Shiro didn’t want any of the employees swearing in the aquarium, so he made them swear in Merian (which made no sense, since they were still swearing but in a different language, but whatever).

Shiro smiled at him. “Bye Keith.”

Keith gave a small smile back. “Bye Shiro.” 

* * *

By the time Keith’s footsteps on the ladder rang out and announced dinner, Lance had mostly recovered from the shock from the nightmare.

But that had only left room for incredible guilt and sadness- he had punched Keith, the very nice human who he thought had been becoming his friend.

But of course he had gone and quiznacked that up.

Way to go Lance. Good for quiznacking nothing.

Lance shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, trying to make it not look like absolute crap after the day spent in his bed, mildly dissociating and having panic attacks every few hours. 

When he decided there was nothing else to be done, the merman took a breath and headed to the surface of the water.

When he broke the surface he only held his head above water, still a few feet from the platform. Keith looked surprised and relieved, like he had been worrying that Lance wouldn’t come up to the surface at all. 

Lance crossed the short distance to the platform, refusing the look Keith in the eye. The employee hesitated for a moment before reaching into the bucket and pulling out a salmon. Lance grabbed it and sank down a bit, looking down into the water. 

Tension crackled through the air between them as Lance struggled to enjoy his favorite food and Keith struggled to think of something to say.

“So... what happened earlier, uh...”

Lance raised a hand to stop Keith, dumping the fish bones on the platform with the other. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Ah. Ok.”

More silence. 

“Just... if you ever need to talk, uh... you can? To me?”

Lance glanced up at Keith, who looked extremely uncomfortable. Lance felt a pang a guilt and rested his hand lightly on the human’s knee. Keith looked down at him, surprised.

“Hey, it’s ok. I get it. Sorry for hitting you earlier.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay, uh... I don’t really blame you.”

Lance smiled at Keith, removing his hand. Keith smiled back.

There was still silence as Lance finished his meal, but it was a comfortable silence, one Lance didn’t mind. After he finished he said bye to Keith and watched the other boy disappear down the staircase.

Lance smiled to himself and dove back down to return to his room, heart relaxed after a day of anxiety.


	4. ANNOUNCEMENT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> im really sorry guys :(

Hello.  
I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for the next chapter of this fanfic, and I apologize for not updating it for so long.

I am also sorry that I will have to stop writing this fanfic.

I tried writing the next chapter, but it just came out awful. I had plot points I had no idea how to work in, and currently, I am really not at all confident in my writing abilities.  
I will leave this fanfic up, but know that it is extremely unlikely to be continued in the future.

I do have an Instagram where I post art, edits, and eventually, maybe even a fanfiction/ social media fic I may make. (My username is @hotcocoacutie for those of you who want to follow me.)

Again, I am very sorry; this fanfiction simply was not making me happy anymore, and I just don't want to continue it.

Yours Truly,  
Abby

**Author's Note:**

> Info About the Characters:  
> Ages-  
> Shiro, Adam - 25  
> Matt - 23  
> Allura - 19  
> Lance, Nyma, Hunk, Romelle, Kinkade, James - 18  
> Keith, Rolo, Ina - 17  
> Pidge - 16
> 
> Races-  
> Merfolk - Lance, Shay, Rolo, Nyma, Kinkade  
> Humans - Shiro, Keith, Hunk  
> Half- Mers - Allura, Romelle  
> Avians - Pidge, Matt, James, Ina
> 
> Roles in the Aquarium-  
> Shiro - Owner  
> Adam - Co-Owner  
> Matt - Financial / Tech Guy  
> Allura, Hunk, Keith - Employees  
> Coran - Janitor  
> Lance, Shay, Kinkade, Rolo, Nyma - Merfolk, sort of like exhibits for visiting humans to look at  
> Pidge - Part-Time Employee


End file.
